A blog about lovely Waterlooville, a small, environmentally damaged town in Hampshire, UK. Waterlooville was founded after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, as troops from that conflict returned home and passed through Hampshire. Having grown from a small village to a suburban sprawl, Waterlooville faces serious environmental challenges today and in the future.

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Saturday, September 29

Amazing isn't it. You can be going about your business for years, commenting on how important it is to have renewable energy, improving energy efficiency and other such issues. But you don't see any big projects in your area.

Then hey presto! two come along at the same time.

Within cycling distance of Waterlooville, a small 5 megawatt solar energy farm is proposed to be built at Lovedean. The developers say that it will produce enough energy for the houses of Lovedean, Catherington and Horndean.

The second proposal is for a much bigger solar energy farm near Fareham about 10 times bigger than the Lovedean proposal, the output of this project would be 47 megawatts enough to power about 14,000 homes.

So what do these projects have in common?

They will use photovoltaic solar panels to produce electricity, these are the same panels that are becoming a common sight on the roofs of homes throughout Havant Borough. The 'farms' panels will be connected to the national grid and will offset some of the carbon emissions that are normally produced by big power stations.

The great thing about this type of system is that the panels stand above the ground and they don't need big concrete foundations. So underneath the panels, plants can grow and animals can rummage around.
On the larger project the company propose to graze sheep amongst the panels and plant wild flowers around the perimeter.

Should be interesting to see how this goes. We desperately need to reduce carbon emissions, this years weather (across the world, not just the UK) is a clear indicator of the consequences of doing nothing and the tremendous costs both in life and money.

Sunday, September 9

It seems that Councillors are getting agitated by Havant Boroughs population actually having a voice. For years they have been asking for public engagement with the council, allegedly to help them formulate their plans. But now they are complaining that people are exercising their voices.

The whole issue seems to have come to a head in Havant where the deputy leader of Havant Borough Council has been rebutted on an issue of a plan to redevelop a large area along and near East Street. Earlier in the month a group of people led by a Green Party member decided to set up a new organisation called 'Friends of Havant'. Previously Havant Borough Council had admitted that only one developer had expressed interest in developing the area.

The council has suffered criticism over other development issues over a number of months and years.
Recently an extension to the Solent Retail Park has attracted criticism and numerous other developments over the months attracted 'negative' comments.

Meanwhile in Westminster David Cameron has gone ahead with his cabinet 'shuffle' the results being an environment minister that is pro-shale gas and campaigned against wind farms and a planning minister that likes removing planning rules. How much more damage can these people do?